Singapore shares inched higher this week, with the STI up 0.48% in the last five trading days.

HSBC ADR 10 up 58.76%; ST Engineering, First Resources , HPH Trust USD and Tencent HK SDR 10to1 up 10%; IFAST was down 10%; $TCIL HK$(T15.SI)$ down 8%, Airports of Thailand NVDR down 7%, Olam Group down 6%, First Sponsor down 5%.

Market News

ST Engineering shares soar over 13% as analysts raise target price

The company's shares closed at $6.13 on Mar 7, marking a gain of more than 13% this week. 

Maybank upgraded the stock to “buy” on Feb 28, on the back of “continued growth, better margins and nascent turnaround in the satcom (satellite communications) business”.

“We expect ST Engineering to maintain its strong earnings growth momentum in 2025, and given its strong (free cash flow) generation, we think it can gradually raise dividends in 2025 to 2027,” said RHB analysts.

First Resources' Production Growth Likely to Persist in 2025

First Resources' production growth is likely to persist in 2025, UOB Kay Hian's Lester Siew says in a research report.

Management has targeted production growth of 5% for 2025 after robust operational performance from the palm oil producer's estates in 2024, the analyst notes.

Similar to its 2024 cost guidance, management has set cost guidance for 2025 at US$280-US$300 per ton, mainly driven by lower unit-crude-palm-oil cost assumptions, the analyst adds.

The brokerage lifts its 2025 EPS forecast for First Resources by 21%. It raises the stock's target price to S$1.75 from S$1.65 with an unchanged buy rating. Shares rose 12% at S$1.64 this week.

Tencent’s AI Bot Passes DeepSeek as China’s Favorite on iPhones

Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Yuanbao AI chatbot passed DeepSeek to become the most downloaded iPhone app in China this week, highlighting the intensifying domestic competition.

Tencent’s app integrates its in-house Hunyuan artificial intelligence tech alongside DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model and has taken over at a time of acute interest and competition around AI in the country. Three of the top five most downloaded free apps are AI bots, with ByteDance Ltd.’s Doubao joining Tencent and DeepSeek.

Tencent SDR rose 10% this week after TENCENT hitting a new high on Thursday since July 2021.